Dennis William Butt

This view is looking East from where I live. I call my place Château de Derrière. This is a

sunrise at Château de Derrière on Buzzard Ridge Road in The Big Woods in Brandon Township, Jackson County, Iowa.

I'm looking East to Licking County, Ohio, Berkeley County, West Virginia, down the Potomac to Prince George's County, Maryland, across to Kent County, Delaware, up to Dutchess County, New York, up further to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and across the Atlantic to England whence my paternal and many other of my ancestors came.

Welcome!

The Mayflower landed on this continent on 11/21/1620. Of the 102 passengers on board, 66 were "Separatists" of the English Church. The Separatists were also known as "Pilgrims". The best I can discern is that my earliest BUTT/GREEN ancestors arrived on this continent around 1660/1680 respectively. Subsequently, these two families inter- and intra-married extensively.

My BUTT/GREEN family history on this continent is rich indeed. Volumes have been written about both. Yet it is amazingly incomplete as well; my known, paternal BUTT line truncates in the late 1700's with my gr gr grandfather.

This site is dedicated to identifying the unknown parents, or father at least, of my gr gr grandfather, Bazil Butt, b. 3/13/1797, and to keeping all my ancestors "alive". Bazil was always referred to by his Iowa descendants, both in writing and verbally, as Bazil Baker Butt. Perhaps there was a BAKER family connection. This is also an effort to bring as fully up-to-date as reasonable, with all the most current information available, my BUTT and GREEN family histories. You might not understand that...it's an "Indian Thing". This is a working document. Please come back often as it will be updated frequently. Thanks for coming.

This site has now been visited

times.

I am very much interested in any comments you might have about this site. I am particularly interested in what you do NOT like, and how you think it can be improved. I want this site to be interesting and easy to use. Please send your comments to:

dennisbutt@hughes.net

This site is far lengthier than I had anticipated. It is not possible to get through it in "a short time". Hours are required to get through it all. Here's a check on the time for you.

It is currently:

at the

Château de Derrière

on Buzzard Ridge Road,

Brandon Township,

Jackson County, Iowa

where I live.

My name is Dennis William Butt.

I was born February 4, 1940 in the hospital in Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa. I was raised one County South in Clinton County. I currently live in Brandon Township, Jackson County, Iowa, in the midst of what used to be called "The Big Woods". I will talk much about The Big Woods, Brandon Township and Jackson County, Iowa in the section titled "Catherine Clarissa (Green) (Gould) "Katy" Butt, her parents, the Houston's and Sinkey's". This lady was my gr grandmother. There are different spellings and orderings of her names. I call her "Katy", as did my father and his mother and father.

I live ~1/4 of a mile as the crow flies, both to the East and North of the South branch of the Maquoketa River ~1/4 of a mile North of the Millertown Bridge, and ~45 miles West of the Mississippi. The town of Maquoketa, Iowa is about 20 minutes to the East.

From DNA, I know my paternal ancestors, father-to-son only, no women included, were British.

I'm often asked about the word "Maquoketa". There are different interpretations. My understanding at the moment is that it's a combination of corrupted French and Indigenous words that suggest "Little Bear" or perhaps just "Bear". In any event, it seems likely to me that the word takes its origin from the fact that The Big Woods, through which the two branches of this river ran, was, prior to the time it was occupied by Whites, home to a very large community of Black Bears. For this reason and others, The Big Woods was avoided by both Indigenous people and French trappers. There is a creek that runs on the South side of The Big Woods called Big Bear creek, or, simply, Bear creek.

The Wapsipinicon is the next major river to the South. The word "Wapsipinicon" is an Indigenous word that describes that river as being one along which "swan potatoes" or artichokes can be found. This suggests that the word "Maquoketa" is similarly descriptive.

I describe in the section about my gr grandmother, Catherine Clarissa "Katy" (Green) (Gould) Butt, the area in which I live. Some of my ancestors were among the first to come to Jackson County. My gr gr gr grandfather, Andrew Houston came here in 1848, two years after Iowa became a state. Many other of his descendants are still here.

Here are a couple of items that describe my life philosophy.

Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun.

Without art, life would be unbearable.

Depending upon the computer and internet connection being used, the site can be very difficult to access and navigate. I am doing all I know to improve this situation. I've broken the site into sections. I've reduced the sizes of some fonts, graphics, etc. I've also added thumbnails throughout.

With most Windows Operating Systems you can zoom-in and zoom-out by holding down the Control "Ctrl" key and simultaneously turning the wheel on the mouse. This sometimes distorts certain items.

As mentioned, Thumbnails have been used throughout. In case you are not familiar with them, a Thumbnail is a small version of the original picture/graphic. When you come to one, if you click on the small picture, the full sized version will open. If the full sized version is NOT larger than your screen, all you will see is the full sized version. Some of the graphics are necessarily large. If the picture is larger than your screen, a middle sized version that fits in your screen will appear. The cursor will turn into a magnifying glass with a "+" or "-" sign in it. Clicking on the graphic with the magnifying glass will toggle from full sized to medium sized. When you're in medium sized view, clicking on a particular part of the picture with the magnifying glass cursor will bring up the full sized picture centered on the place where you clicked. You can scroll both up and down and/or side to side when viewing a picture that is larger than your screen.

To return to the place where you were when you opened the Thumbnail and to reduce the picture back to Thumbnail size, simply click on the "BACK" button in your Bowser title bar. Note that clicking on the "X" button in the upper right-hand corner will close out the entire web site.

The last thing I want to do is limit the amount of information provided by this site. Instead, I will continue to do my best to find ways to make it easier to access and use the ever increasing amount of information included in the site. In the end, I do have 50 years of gatherins and I'm receiving more practically every day.

And lastly, please feel free to download, copy, etc. any information, pictures, etc. you would like from this site.

Regards,

Hope abounds!!!!

It is my hope that this site will attract the attention of someone who can help identify the parents, or at least the father, of my gr gr grandfather, Bazil Butt. I would be elated if someone would just provide us with some new information about him to study. The more we know, the better, even if it seems trivial.

One last comment: When Einstein discovered the relationship between the speed of energy, mass and energy he put it in the famous equation, E=MC². His work leading up to that equation implied that the Universe was expanding. Einstein's equation was consistent with that yet Einstein didn't believe at the time that this is the case. So, in his original equation, he put a term that described the Universe as "stable". He was wrong about that. Later when he realized that the Universe IS expanding, he took that term out of the equation and said when he did so, that putting the stabilizing term in his original work was the biggest blunder of his professional career.

The point is this; we all make mistakes. I'm sure you'll find some here and, perhaps in some of the sites to which I'm providing links. Mistakes do not necessarily discredit the entire presentation, nor do errors of any kind. I can speak for no one else, but in my case, information that corrects mistakes or errors of any kind in my work is tantamount to discovering new information.

If you have any information about any of the foregoing that you would like to share, please forward same to me at the following e-mail address.

Regards,

Dennis Butt

Château de Derrière

Buzzard Ridge Road

The Big Woods

Brandon Township, Jackson County, Iowa

dennisbutt@hughes.net

Goto Top of the page

The links below will take you directly to any of the 28 pages in this site. Clicking the "Back" button in your browser will always take you back to where you came from.

Goto Summary

Goto NEWS

Goto Table Of Content

Goto Who Was Bazil Butt?

Goto Berkeley Journal; " Buttstown" Article

Goto Berkeley Journal; " Smoketown and Greensburg" Article

Goto John Butt, b. between 1/1/1788 and 6/30/1788

Goto Rignal Butt, b. ~4/1/1790

Goto Rignal Butt, The Hatter, b. 8/10/1802

Goto Thomas Didimus Butt, b. 2/15/1801

Goto Samuel Butt, b. 11/13/1797, father of Senan Butt, b. 12/14/1827

Goto Samuel Butt, b. 1/14/1777